Initially it sounds pretty bad that Kushner had to amend his security clearance form twice to include meeting a lot of Russians that he failed to mention when he first filed. Kushner claims that a staffer accidentally hit the "send" button before the form was finished. His lawyers informed to government the next day that Kushner would amend his form. That doesn't sound so bad. But...

...the form was sent in January and Kushner only sent in the amendment that included the Russian contacts in May. In the meantime Kushner was issued a temporary high level security classification. Probably not coincidentally, the amendment came when the press started reporting on the meetings Kushner had with Russians.

And there's the problem of the supposedly comprehensive amendment to the form not including the meeting at Trump Tower with the Russian lawyer. I'm sure he is going to plead ignorance about who she was and didn't understand why he was at the meeting and that's why he didn't include it in the amendment.

It all reeks of BS to me. I think there is a good chance that Kushner's plan all along was to submit the form that was incomplete and his lawyers probably had the notification of future amendment already written up. (Some staffer "accidentally" hit the send button on a form that Kushner had signed long before it was complete? Nah.) That way he could get the security clearance and get tapped into the intelligence network right away without chancing that his past Russian contacts would be enough to keep him out.

Why would he want deep access to the intelligence network? I doubt he is a direct Russian spy, but it did give him a way to find out what the intelligence agencies are up to that might affect Trump or his associates - including Kushner himself.

I guess I'm drifting into conspiracy territory here but I am not sure what these guys are doing is coherent enough to be called a conspiracy. Some of this post is speculative, I'll admit. But I am getting more and more convinced that Kushner is and has been up to really shady stuff. I'm sure Mueller has been scanning with a wide angle lens, as he should, but I'm sure that as he scans there are certain areas where he is planting bullseyes to more closely target. I'll bet Mueller has a bullseye on Kushner and its getting bigger by the day.

Unfortunately, Hanlon's Razor applies incredibly well here. What we have is a President and his family and their various minions who have been fully and completely compromised by years of shady and straight up illegal deals. And are all believably claiming ignorance. They HAVE compromised US strategic and tactical security. They HAVE compromised US economic security. A political / spy novelist could not have written a better novel showing a more complete compromise of our nation by our military and economic competitors- China and Russia.

Arrest them. Try them. Convict them of being too damn stupid to be President. Fortunately Pence is right up there as a minion with dirty hands. Who will we get to be President ?

QuoteTed King
Kushner claims that a staffer accidentally hit the "send" button before the form was finished.

The dog ate my homework is more imaginative than that one.

QuoteTed KingAnd there's the problem of the supposedly comprehensive amendment to the form not including the meeting at Trump Tower with the Russian lawyer. I'm sure he is going to plead ignorance about who she was...

...or why she was referred to as a Russian government lawyer in the email chain inviting him to the meeting. He also had no idea why there was a Russian interpreter at the meeting, since this woman doesn't speak English (!).

QuoteTed KingI guess I'm drifting into conspiracy territory here but I am not sure what these guys are doing is coherent enough to be called a conspiracy.

Indeed. Nothing this administration does is coherent enough to be called a government either.

Quotecbelt3
Unfortunately, Hanlon's Razor applies incredibly well here. What we have is a President and his family and their various minions who have been fully and completely compromised by years of shady and straight up illegal deals. And are all believably claiming ignorance. They HAVE compromised US strategic and tactical security. They HAVE compromised US economic security. A political / spy novelist could not have written a better novel showing a more complete compromise of our nation by our military and economic competitors- China and Russia.

Arrest them. Try them. Convict them of being too damn stupid to be President. Fortunately Pence is right up there as a minion with dirty hands. Who will we get to be President ?

One of the most troubling things for me is that I think that a sizable minority of Republican voters know that Trump almost utterly lacks integrity but seem to be just fine with the idea that "sure he's scoundrel but he is our scoundrel". The ends justifies the means and the only ends that seem to matter to a large percent of Republicans is maximal partisan gain. What's good for far right Republicans politically must be good for the country as a whole. There's always been an element of that any any American political party, but the contemporary Republicans seem to have drifted far and deep into that territory.

Indeed. Nothing this administration does is coherent enough to be called a government either.

That is, sadly, not all that much of an exaggeration. Thank goodness there are a lot of professional bureaucrats that are providing at least some working governance by inertia. As Trump cuts swathes of those people, though, and the inertia peters out, it's probably going to get quite a bit worse.

QuoteTed King
Kushner claims that a staffer accidentally hit the "send" button before the form was finished.

One news program had a FBI agent that recently left the agency, narrate the process of filling out the current SF-86 form online. You have to initial and e-sign it in at least 20 places on different pages. It clearly states: The United States Criminal Code (title 18, section 1001) provides that knowingly falsifying or concealing a material fact is a felony which may result in fines and/or up to 5 years of imprisonment. It's not something you "accidentally" click send.

Any regular government employee that did what he did would have been, at the very least, fired without question.

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